Listen to Steve Smyers for any length of time and at some point he’ll most likely refer to a “journey.” His 50-year career as a golf course designer has taken him on a global journey. His competitive playing days were a journey in self-discovery. And now he envisions a journey unlike any other for Reynolds Members who enter his next masterpiece: Fenmoor Golf Club.
Fenmoor, in a sense, is the cumulation of every scenic, thought-provoking journey Smyers has ever taken. Spread across an untraversed swath of land, this eighth course at Reynolds promises to be so unparalleled that it will inspire a new membership tier: The Reserve.
“Some designers can point to a certain course as their inspiration for a new project,” Smyers says. “I can’t say that about Fenmoor. I’m drawing from everything I’ve seen and liked over the years.”
He’s seen and liked a lot during his travels. Along the way, he has mentally archived imagery and data as a player (he was a member of the University of Florida’s national championship team in 1973), caddie (he carried the bag for Miller Barber during the 1969 US Open at Champions Golf Club in Houston), and visionary (he has renovated or designed nearly 100 courses, leaving footprints on every continent except Antarctica).
“I almost did a little project in Antarctica for a fun story,” Smyers says with his characteristic humility, “but it didn’t happen.”
All of his steps have brought him to this sprawling parcel of rolling pine forest, high hilltops, and low country. Smyers sounds as much like an adventurer as a golf course designer when he describes the terrain he’s working with.
“If four of us were dropped from a helicopter and told to take a walk on this property,” he says, “we would each gravitate to different areas to embark on our own preferred journey. That’s why I intend to preserve what nature has given us, so when Fenmoor is complete, golfers can still take those personal journeys.”
With golf clubs in tow during these scenic walks, players will cross unique mounding and bunkering, and navigate signature treelines and grasslines. At certain points, they will come across Georgia’s versions of Smyers’ favorite features from around the world, such as juniper to mimic the iconic heather seen in the U.K.
The connection from golf to environment, and environment to golf, will be seamless, beautiful, and, yes, challenging.
“You won’t lose golf balls, but you will have to think your way through situations,” Smyers says. For example? “We’ll implement light rough up to the equator of the ball. A shot into the pine trees will require the art of recovery. The variety in the topography will stimulate golfers to answer questions during every round: Am I going to be aggressive or will I take the percentage play? Nothing is punitive. It’s all to spark thoughtfulness, which to me is the purest form of golf.”
Smyers can already see the entire Fenmoor experience in his mind.
“It starts long before the first tee …” he begins. Players cross a bridge onto the golf oasis. Outside the clubhouse, there’s a putting green with nods to St. Andrews and a short-game area providing immediate feedback and hints of the forthcoming 18-hole journey. In and around the clubhouse, Members are hanging out in the restaurant, the bar, the lounges, and with terrace views no one until now has ever captured.
“You’re going to learn something about golf and about yourself every time you play,” Smyers says. “And at the end of the day, isn’t that the kind of journey we all want?”
